2021 Model S Plaid Steering Yoke shaking at highway speeds

[WilliamG]

My 21” OEM wheels with OEM summers vibrated at 80mph and above. My 19” OEM with OEM winters vibrate at 80mph and above. I just put on some new 19” forged monoblock wheels with Pirelli OEM summer tires, with friction lock, - and the vibration is 90% gone. I don’t even notice it now unless I fully let go of the yoke and can then see the tiniest movement.

 

[FinPlaid]

I received my Plaid last September with the original 19" Tempest wheels and Pirelli Pzero tires. I swapped my winter studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 EV -tires for the original wheels, and all the vibration that was there with the original summer tires, was gone. I already suspected that there was something wrong with the tires.

For winter, I had misplaced the summer tires (without wheels) to my outdoor warehouse space, and the tires had been exposed to some dripping rainwater and melting snow during the winter. I went to my tire shop to change the summer tires on the wheels, and they said that they will have to take the foam out of the tire.

Well, now all the shaking and imbalance is gone and the nois increase is negliglible. You may want to try removing the foam inside the tire if you are experiencing shaking and vibration. If the original tires are fitted on the wheels in high temperature, even shipping the car to a lower temperature area may cause the moisture in the tire to condense into the foam, and cause some imbalance on the tires. It can even move to different place when tires heat and cool, and the moisture condenses again from steam to droplets.

My tire shop was figuring out similar issues earlier with a Mercedes EQS, which had inconsistent and strange vibration despite balancing the tyres. They found that the only way to get things right was removing the foam, and if not, it should be extremely dry (as well as air humidity in the tire shop).

 

[tars10]

I have solved my vibrations. I brought my Model S to a reputable rim repair shop after a couple of tire shops with Hunter Road Force Balancers independently told me one of my wheels was bent. While googling this rim repair shop, I remembered that I had brought my Audi A5 there in 2016 to fix bent wheels that were causing vibrations back then.

The shop owner contacted me an hour after I dropped the car off, saying three of my Arachnid wheels were bent and one of my wheels had a very high road force reading, but he managed to get it down to 19.

A few hours later, he called me to come pick up the car. The other three wheels were smacked back into shape (there are videos on YouTube on how this is done) and then road force balanced. He was confident that if this did not fix the issue, the root cause would not be the wheels or tires.

I've driven over 1500 miles so far, and the car is extremely smooth at all highway speeds. Some particular portions of the road still vibrate, but it is extremely mild (almost imperceptible) and short-lived, easily attributed to the road rather than the car.

My theory after all of this is that the Arachnid and Tempest wheels are manufactured cheaply, and the majority of them are not round from the factory. My 2015 Audi A5 had 19s that were stamped BBS (IMO top 3 wheel manufacturer) on the inside of the wheels.

 

[WilliamG]

I have solved my vibrations. I brought my Model S to a reputable rim repair shop after a couple of tire shops with Hunter Road Force Balancers independently told me one of my wheels was bent. While googling this rim repair shop, I remembered that I had brought my Audi A5 there in 2016 to fix bent wheels that were causing vibrations back then.

The shop owner contacted me an hour after I dropped the car off, saying three of my Arachnid wheels were bent and one of my wheels had a very high road force reading, but he managed to get it down to 19.

A few hours later, he called me to come pick up the car. The other three wheels were smacked back into shape (there are videos on YouTube on how this is done) and then road force balanced. He was confident that if this did not fix the issue, the root cause would not be the wheels or tires.

I've driven over 1500 miles so far, and the car is extremely smooth at all highway speeds. Some particular portions of the road still vibrate, but it is extremely mild (almost imperceptible) and short-lived, easily attributed to the road rather than the car.

My theory after all of this is that the Arachnid and Tempest wheels are manufactured cheaply, and the majority of them are not round from the factory. My 2015 Audi A5 had 19s that were stamped BBS (IMO top 3 wheel manufacturer) on the inside of the wheels.

I’d buy this logic. Both my 21” Arachnids and 19” Tempests vibrated around 80mph. Since switching to a set of forged 19” SV104 the 80mph vibration is 99% gone. Aaaaand I had the Tesla ones re-balanced by a tire shop and it didn’t help. Tesla gonna Tesla.

 

[Fastcar]

I had it with my stock 21" rims went with Atomic 20" square set up smooth and no shaking now

 

[tars10]

I’d buy this logic. Both my 21” Arachnids and 19” Tempests vibrated around 80mph. Since switching to a set of forged 19” SV104 the 80mph vibration is 99% gone. Aaaaand I had the Tesla ones re-balanced by a tire shop and it didn’t help. Tesla gonna Tesla.

Straightening bent wheels is a niche business and more art than science. Tesla and regular tire shops can balance your bent wheels 100 times it won't make a difference. They won't know they're bent, and if they do— there's nothing they can do about it anyway.

The Model S is a bonafide wheel bender. Heavy sedan with 670hp on cheaply cast wheels does not work in your favour doing 40 over on city potholes.

 

[n2mb_racing]

Straightening bent wheels is a niche business and more art than science. Tesla and regular tire shops can balance your bent wheels 100 times it won't make a difference. They won't know they're bent, and if they do— there's nothing they can do about it anyway.

The Model S is a bonafide wheel bender. Heavy sedan with 670hp on cheaply cast wheels does not work in your favour doing 40 over on city potholes.

1020 HP.
So far I don't have that vibration, but I do have the 40-50 mph vibration under light acceleration. Hooray.

 

[tars10]

1020 HP.
So far I don't have that vibration, but I do have the 40-50 mph vibration under light acceleration. Hooray.

I apologize! I drive LR. I also have the 40-50mph light acceleration issue but I don't understand all the hysteria on that one.. it's pretty mild. ICE cars have a myriad of inherent issues under 50mph; vibrations, clunky gear changes, power lags, occasional downshift hiccups... the trade-off is fair IMO.

 

[WilliamG]

I apologize! I drive LR. I also have the 40-50mph light acceleration issue but I don't understand all the hysteria on that one.. it's pretty mild. ICE cars have a myriad of inherent issues under 50mph; vibrations, clunky gear changes, power lags, occasional downshift hiccups... the trade-off is fair IMO.

I think the issue is that this doesn’t affect the 3 or Y, and it’s clearly something Tesla should have put more thought into. It’s ironic that their 2023.44 firmware fix for the issue didn’t eliminate the problem (though it is absolutely better than it was), but it did eat a few miles of range, per the TSB. If they could eliminate it entirely, I’d be happy to lose a few more miles.

 

[n2mb_racing]

I apologize! I drive LR. I also have the 40-50mph light acceleration issue but I don't understand all the hysteria on that one.. it's pretty mild. ICE cars have a myriad of inherent issues under 50mph; vibrations, clunky gear changes, power lags, occasional downshift hiccups... the trade-off is fair IMO.

It's annoying.

I think the issue is that this doesn’t affect the 3 or Y, and it’s clearly something Tesla should have put more thought into. It’s ironic that their 2023.44 firmware fix for the issue didn’t eliminate the problem (though it is absolutely better than it was), but it did eat a few miles of range, per the TSB. If they could eliminate it entirely, I’d be happy to lose a few more miles.

Exactly. The 3 and Y don't do this. No other cars do it. No reason for it other than bad engineering.

I'm wondering if the fix in 2023.44 didn't make it into the FSD branch, because I am really sure I don't have it. Either that, or my car has much worse vibration. Mine is just as bad as it was on my 2021 long before the 2023.44 update.

 

[WilliamG]

It's annoying.

Exactly. The 3 and Y don't do this. No other cars do it. No reason for it other than bad engineering.

I'm wondering if the fix in 2023.44 didn't make it into the FSD branch, because I am really sure I don't have it. Either that, or my car has much worse vibration. Mine is just as bad as it was on my 2021 long before the 2023.44 update.

It varies car to car. I have FSD and it absolutely made it in. For some it’s unfortunate it made the issue worse.

 

[cloudflare69]

It's annoying.

Exactly. The 3 and Y don't do this. No other cars do it. No reason for it other than bad engineering.

I'm wondering if the fix in 2023.44 didn't make it into the FSD branch, because I am really sure I don't have it. Either that, or my car has much worse vibration. Mine is just as bad as it was on my 2021 long before the 2023.44 update.

What’s interesting is that Kia EV9s are having similar vibration issues. Read a post on Reddit and they don’t know what it is yet. But I expect them to actually dig into the issue unlike Tesla

 

[FtechPro]

Does it happen on all highways at that speed?

 

[n2mb_racing]

What’s interesting is that Kia EV9s are having similar vibration issues. Read a post on Reddit and they don’t know what it is yet. But I expect them to actually dig into the issue unlike Tesla

I imagine if it was the 3/Y they'd fix it. But, since it's the S/X, they don't care at all.